The shortage of medical resources promotes medical treatment reform, and smart healthcare is a promising strategy to solve this problem. With the development of Internet, real-time health status is expected to be monitored at home by using flexible healthcare systems, which puts forward new demands on flexible substrates for sensors. Currently, the flexible substrates are mainly traditional petroleum-based polymers, which are not renewable. As a natural polymer, cellulose, owing to its wide range of sources, convenient processing, biodegradability and so on, is an ideal alternative. In this review, the application progress of nanocellulose in flexible sensors is summarized. The structure and the modification methods of cellulose and nanocellulose are introduced at first, and then the application of nanocellulose flexible sensors in real-time medical monitoring is summarized. Finally, the advantages and future challenges of nanocellulose in the field of flexible sensors are discussed.
Cellulose/chemistry* ; Hydrogels/chemistry* ; Polymers

Star-shaped polymer of epoxidized soybean oil (ESO) and lactide is a new material. Its degradation function has an importance to its applications. There are many factors affecting its degradation. This paper is mainly aimed at investigation in which the surface morphology, pH, molecular weight and weight loss rate, branching ESO-lactide star polymers the degree of change were studied. It was found through the experiments that, the changing rates of the branching ESO-lactide star polymers were slower than the degree of PDLLA change compared to the surface morphology, pH, molecular weight and weight loss rate. This has a guiding significance to the further application of ESO-lactide.
Polyesters ; chemistry ; Polymers ; chemistry ; Soybean Oil ; chemistry

Dextranase can degrade dextran polymer into low molecular weight polysaccharide. Dextranase and its hydrolysates are widely used in food, medicine and chemical industries. Studies on dextranase progresses rapidly in recent years. We reviewed literature reports combined with our study about the progress of dextranase and its potential applications in industry. In addition, we addressed hot topics and emphasized on the current research about dextranase, existing problems in domesticstudies and the future research needs needs.
Dextranase ; chemistry ; Dextrans ; chemistry ; Molecular Weight ; Polymers

Polymalic acid, known as a bioactive material, is completely biodegradable, and has far reaching application potential in medical field. Combined with our own findings, we summarized advances in polymalic acid metabolism, microbial fermentation synthesis, and application research in the medical field. Finally, prospect for further research was addressed.
Fermentation ; Industrial Microbiology ; Malates ; chemistry ; Polymers ; chemistry

Polyetheretherketone (PEEK) has been widely applied in orthopedics because of its excellent mechanical properties, radiolucency, and biocompatibility. However, the bioinertness and poor osteointegration of PEEK have greatly limited its further application. Growing evidence proves that physical factors of implants, including their architecture, surface morphology, stiffness, and mechanical stimulation, matter as much as the composition of their surface chemistry. This review focuses on the multiple strategies for the physical modification of PEEK implants through adjusting their architecture, surface morphology, and stiffness. Many research findings show that transforming the architecture and incorporating reinforcing fillers into PEEK can affect both its mechanical strength and cellular responses. Modified PEEK surfaces at the macro scale and micro/nano scale have positive effects on cell-substrate interactions. More investigations are necessary to reach consensus on the optimal design of PEEK implants and to explore the efficiency of various functional implant surfaces. Soft-tissue integration has been ignored, though evidence shows that physical modifications also improve the adhesion of soft tissue. In the future, ideal PEEK implants should have a desirable topological structure with better surface hydrophilicity and optimum surface chemistry.
Benzophenones ; Ketones/chemistry* ; Polyethylene Glycols/chemistry* ; Polymers/chemistry* ; Surface Properties

Poly (lactic acid) (PLA) is a polymer synthesized from lactic acid with good biocompatibility and biodegradability. At present, PLA manufactured on industrial scale is mainly synthesized from L-lactic acid. The obtained products have good transparency but poor heat resistance. Adding nucleating agents could increase the crystallinity of PLA, to improve heat resistance. We reviewed the progress of research on organic and inorganic nucleating agents that can be used for PLA synthesis.
Chemical Industry ; Lactic Acid ; Polyesters ; chemistry ; Polymers

Polylactic acid is synthesized indirectly by the polymerization method, according to the standard GB/T 16886.18-2011, the evaluation parameters and methods about chemical characterization of polylactic acid have been established. By using rigorous and comprehensive comparative analysis, the chemical equivalency of domestic and imported polylactic acid materials has been proved, along with the "Medical Device Biology Evaluation and Review Guide", paving the way of using domestic polylactic acid in implantable medical devices.
Equipment and Supplies ; Lactic Acid ; Polyesters ; chemistry ; Polymers

As a new type of functional material, magnetic thermosensitive polymeric microspheres offer high potential application in various fields, particularly in bioengineering and biomedical fields. In this review, the development of synthesis and application of magnetic thermosensitive polymeric microspheres was summarized, and the research trends were also discussed.
Biocompatible Materials ; chemistry ; Magnetics ; Microspheres ; Particle Size ; Polymers ; chemistry ; Temperature

Molecular imprinting technology is widely used in the separation and analysis of compounds such as flavonoids, alkaloids and polyphenols, due to its high selectivity and specific recognition and so on. However, no much of attention has been paid to the terpenoids. This paper is aimed to not only review the effects of common synthetic elements such as functional monomers, cross-linking agents and porogens on the polymer properties, but also highlight the application of terpene molecular imprinting in solid phase extraction, sensor, membrane separation and chromatographic separation by means of statistical analysis of literature. Furthermore, the shortcomings and improvement directions are discussed.We believed that this paper could provide references for better applications of molecular imprinting techniques to the analysis of terpenoid compounds.
Chromatography ; Molecular Imprinting ; Polymers ; chemistry ; Solid Phase Extraction ; Terpenes ; chemistry

Polyetheretherketone (PEEK) is a polymer material composed of aromatic rings connected by ether and ketone groups. It has advantages of excellent biocompatibility, stable chemical properties, and appropriate elasticity modulus. Since PEEK are increasingly used in dentistry in recent years, the properties, modification methods, and research advances of them in oral implantology were discussed in this review.
Dental Implants ; Polymers ; Ketones/chemistry* ; Polyethylene Glycols/chemistry* ; Ethers